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THE VOICE — “Blind Auditions” — Pictured: (l-r) Adam Levine, Blake Shelton — (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC)
The heat was on between the coaches when it came to winning over the second round of contestants of the blind auditions. It was a night of returning contestants from the past and it was another night of the ultimate goal, “The Four Chair Spin”. It was also an evening of joking between the coaches, as Shakira and Usher returned to join reigning winner of last season, Adam Levine and three-time winner, Blake Shelton.
The night started off with returning contestant from season five, Delvin Choice, the Starbuck’s barista, who fell flat with the song selection of Ne-Yo’s “Closer”. He came so far from last season, he definitely got my attention as he sang “A Song For You” a classic by Donnie Hathaway. He had such control and range that it wasn’t a doubt that he’d open up the show getting “The Four Chair Spin”. What was fun to see was how far the coaches would go to get Delvin to choose them. Shakira, the only girl coach on the show, got a little ribbing from Adam in terms of copying her accent. It’s still good to see the coaches having a connection with one another, even in the battle of stealing a team mate for their team. In the end, everyone lost out to Adam, who clenched getting Delvin for Team Adam.
Now after the first stellar performance by Delvin, let’s kick into who caught my attention and what was a miss.
What Caught My Ear
THE VOICE — “Blind Auditions” Episode 602 — Pictured: Deja Hall — (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC)
Joining Delvin in the line of great performances was that of Daja Hall, who performed Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors”. Besides being cute as a button on stage, her angelic voice caught my attention. In every performance from the blinds, the artist on stage from time to time will hit a stumble in the song, and even though she didn’t hit the bravado note that Usher and Adam made mention of, Deja still brought her own life to the song; therefore I was glad that Blake, Shakira and Usher turned their chairs. I hope that Daja makes it past the battles, if not for her voice, but for getting the chance to see Shakira work her heart out with song selection.
With it only being one hour last night, the other performer that rocked and closed the night was Cary Laine, who sang “Better Dig Two” from The Band Perry. As mentioned in my previous review of Monday night’s season premiere episode, I am not a huge fan of country, but I know a great performance when hearing and seeing it. Cary’s grit got all four chairs turned, but it was the sweet talk from both Adam and Usher that made the final performance quite interesting. Adam immediately oozed on the charm by offering Cary his red chair to sit in. Despite Blake trying to convince Cary that he’s won with season three winner Cassadee Pope, making her a country artist with a number one album, Cary went a different route and went for Adam, who won her over.
What Missed the Mark?
THE VOICE — “Blind Auditions” Episode 602 — Pictured: Madilyn Paige — (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC)
Madilyn Paige’s performance of David Guetta’s “Titanium” wasn’t a bad performance, but at sixteen years of age, she has a lot of growth to develop. I didn’t dislike her performance, however, Madilyn was a bit too much one note. She did deliver some height in her vocals but it just didn’t stand out as one of the best stand out blinds for me. Both Shakira and Usher saw something in Madilyn, therefore I understood why they hit their buttons. For seasoned pros like Adam and Blake, they were correct in holding back; after all, they want someone that is going to continue to grow vocally. In the long run, it was Usher that sealed the deal with Madilyn.
Noah Lis, who sang “Me and Mrs. Jones” just didn’t keep my attention. It was clear that he wanted to bring back old jazz and old school standard ballads, however, he was very rough around the edges with his song selection. I still couldn’t understand why either Adam or Blake turned their chairs at the tail end of his performance. Perhaps with more coaching and a better choice of songs to sing from, Blake, who scored Noah for his team, can polish him in being great come battle rounds.
I didn’t like Keith Shuskie’s performance of “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane. He was very pitchy in some places of the song, especially when hitting the high notes, and truthfully, I couldn’t really take him seriously as I watched him sing through the handle-bar mustache. I agree that he should continue to work on his vocals, because he could return come next season as Delvin, and wow the coaches.
After last night’s show, I was so disappointed that there wasn’t another hour worth of blinds attached to it. Tuesday night went by so quick that if you stepped away for just a brief moment you would have missed out on something. Hopefully next Monday, they will return with a two-hour program to showcase many more hopeful artists for us to see.
Make sure to tune in Monday, March 3 to see more blind auditions. Will there be more “Four Chair Spins”? You have to tune in to see. Until next time.
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